Category: viniyoga

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Yoga classes in Altea – amazing! New as of 18-2-22

We are back to the mat, people! Group yoga classes are back, and I am truly thrilled to get back to teaching you the finer points of Hatha yoga.

yoga classes in Altea

A year has now passed since I last gave a group class. It has been a strange year, to say the least. The pandemic (which I know we are all bored of talking about) has exposed rifts both in our inner lives and in our societies. We just had to hunker down and do our best. I wasn’t on my best form for a few months there, so I felt like I didn’t have the energy to give as a teacher. I stuck with my massages, for sure, but yoga became about my personal practice and about teaching private yoga classes at SHA Wellness Clinic.

Luckily, I kept my skills fresh teaching yoga at this world-famous wellness hotel. There, I teach yoga, meditation, mindfulness and pranayama (breath work) and I truly love it. They are private classes, and so have a different feel than group classes. Group classes have their own special vibe, and I am so excited to get back to teaching them.

Group yoga classes are social

I once read a very interesting interview with an Indian yoga teacher from a very distinguished lineage. He was giving a seminar in Sweden and the interviewer stole (borrowed?) a few minutes of his time.

When asked about the differences between teaching yoga in India and teaching yoga in the West, he mentioned the predominance of group classes in the West. Traditional Indian teaching would have been one-to-one, guru to student. Outside of India, that tradition has been lost, or substituted. The teacher mentioned that in Western countries, loneliness is a major social and psychological problem and that group yoga classes play an important role in alleviating this loneliness.

Nice people go to yoga class

In yoga classes, we often meet like-minded people and the environment of yoga encourages a deeper kind of sharing and more intimate conversation that might feel out of place on a pub night out, for example.

Alone in company

I have personally experienced the extremely common situation of being really into personal growth whilst in a relationship with someone who is not. That provoked in me the deepest feelings of loneliness as I felt invalidated when trying to talk about issues that really mattered to me. I was lucky that I worked in the field of wellness and preventative medicine and that gave me an outlet. (Nevertheless, when you’re the teacher or therapist, you’re not expected to share so much as the role of the teacher is to hold space for others. But, that conversation is worthy of a whole other post! )

Entrainment

Have you ever seen those videos of metronomes spontaneously synchronising? There is a tendency for energy waves to fall into patterns, and this is observable in many different area. Birds flying in a swirling flock, feedback on a microphone…and humans meditating. Yep, the phenomenon is called “entrainment” and it happens.

Basically, when you do yoga or meditate, you reduce the frequency and amplitude of your brainwaves. SMB (slow-medium Beta) is the frequency associated with meditative movement modalities like yoga, tai chi or chi gong. If you are practising alone, your brainwaves will relax, but if you are with people who are doing the same practice, it seems like everyone’s brainwaves synchronise and you get to the happy place a little more easily. Also, when you are in the presence of the highly trained and experienced teacher, your brainwaves entrain to theirs. Fascinating to think about, no?

Come to class!

I will start by offering one class per week and take it from there. I am super busy, as is everyone, so I want to make this work.

Day: Fridays

Dates: 18-02-2022 until the end of June.

Time: 9.30-10.30

Studio: Qiyoga

Address: Calle la Mar 143, Altea

Price: 30€/month

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Orchids, yoga, and lying fallow

About to bud

Fallow land is land that is not planted with crops. It is left to lie uncultivated for a season in order to improve the quality of the soil. In the olden days, before chemical fertilisers forced land into continual productivity, parts of a farm would be left fallow for a short time before being replanted on a rotating basis.

Humans also need to lie fallow. Everything does. Everything needs a reset, and a downtime. Just like choosing not to reply is a form of replying, doing nothing is, in fact, doing something. The symbolism of the yin-yang teaches exactly this: everything has an equal and opposite. All activity requires rest, all restfulness requires its activity. Meditation is a lovely way to fallow from the activity of daily life.

Hibernating

Montreal is known for its vibrant cultural scene and especially its summer festivals. Canadians know this is possible partly because of the government’s massive investment in arts and culture and partly because of freezing Québec winter. Montrealers hibernate so that they can bloom in the long, warm summer days.

When it’s cold, you don’t hang out on café terraces. When it gets dark by 4PM, you tend to snuggle up at home. You lie, as it were, fallow. All that downtime can make for some great art, if you’re that way inclined.

Yoga and meditation invite us to lie fallow. They invite us to stop and observe and be still. They invite us to open up a space into which may arrive…anything. All that downtime can make for some great (re)awakenings, if you’re that way inclined.

Hello, little one!

Orchids

I am a lover of orchids. I am regularly given orchids who are lying fallow. Once the bright blooms wither and die, the plant itself is nothing special. Just a few thick and waxy leaves and some rather strange, grey, worm-like aerial roots. No, like this they are not eye-catching. But, give them some sunlight, a little fertiliser and a few months’ rest and they will reward you with dozens of delicate flowers that can last up to six months.

I grow orchids in my massage room. Orchids seem to thrive in the ambience of a therapy room. The stillness, the quiet, the controlled environment suits them just fine. I have tried growing other green plants – ferns, small palms, devil’s ivy – but with little success. They seem much happier in the upbeat and variable environment of a home. But orchids, conversely, in my home don’t thrive. They survive, they bloom, but they don’t burst forth as they do in my massage room.

Hey buddy!

I like to muse that this is because the massage room is a place where their fallow time is respected. They are just allowed to be, to not be beautiful, to receive no comments, to attract no admiration. They just sit, and wait, and gather strength. Perhaps they are meditating. Perhaps they are astral flying back to the South East Asian jungles from whence their ancestors came. I don’t ask and they don’t tell. I just watch them gather speed and know that, come February, their fallow time will end with a burst of colour, life and manifestation of their innate glory.

New shoot on an old shoot

Sit, be still, breathe

Think of meditation and yoga as the stillness before the flowering. The point of postures and breathing and contemplating is not the acts themselves but what comes after. It is not about how much you bend or how long you breathe, it is about what is created by those acts. The yoga is a vehicle, what comes next it totally unique, it the manifestation of YOU, your true nature.

I often say “I don’t do yoga, yoga does me”. Yoga and meditation have allowed me to see who I truly am and to be who I truly long to be. I was a shy and sensitive child who lived through various traumas which, cumulatively, made be edgy and nervous and hyper-vigilant. I was high-functioning and was no beast, but I consistently found myself acting in ways that I would later regret, making hasty decisions that I would later regret and, most importantly, NOT DOING things that I would later regret not doing. Yoga brought me down to Earth. It grounded me and cuddled me and calmed me and gave me a purpose. Yoga and meditation are unfailingly generous, and they are the best time investment I have ever made. I lay fallow for a long time, I lie fallow on a regular basis. But what came out of all this, the life that I am living right now, is marvellous.

As winter draws in, in the Northern Hemisphere, I encourage you to lie fallow. Take time out and watch the clouds, watch your mind, watch your emotions. Be still, breathe, all is coming.

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Yoga and minimalism

When I think of yoga imagery, minimalism the last thing that comes to mind. The Hindu aesthetic is quite clearly maximalist, full of colour, symbolism and detail. This spills over into Western yoga. Yoga leggings, to choose an obvious example, are often brightly coloured and patterned. Many yogis adorn their studio spaces with multi-hued batiks. This is super good, a few years ago I would have done the same. I really like colour. But, there has been an evolution in my consciousness and my yoga teaching and practice. I call it Y O G A | M I N I M A L I S M.

Am I minimalist in my home life?

Yes and no. It has been the work of my lifetime to overcome my hoarding habit. Not only am I born in the Year of the Rat (Rats are considered to be innate hoarders), but both my parents had a marked tendency to save everything for a rainy day. Add to this an exaggerated sense of responsibility for The World (I thought that if I *didn’t* recycle or dispose of ethically I would doom us all!) and some pretty tight years, economically, and you get a person who holds onto to stuff. A big part of my personal (r)evolution was learning to part with things – EVEN if I like them, EVEN if they’re useful.

It was hard at first, but I got the hang of it and now I can confidently say that my possessions do not overwhelm me and are manageable and useful. I had to do the same thing with my yoga. Beginning in 1999, I have practiced yogâsana, and was lucky to find Viniyoga in 2007. Since then, I have worked on focus and exclusivity, and it has brought such an enormous sense of peace and joy – as well as more minimalism. I just do this one thing – Viniyoga and mantra. (My thesis for my first YTT was on mantra and it is core element of my practice). Even so, I do always try to deepen certain poses (the progressive development over time is called “Vinyasa Krama”), and there are still moves that I would love to master. But, that is only desire and I can choose to act on it, or not. For now, I choose to gentle and calm postures, no straining, lots of rest. It works for me and I think that it can work for most practitioners with more than a decades’ practice on their mats.

Y O G A | C O N F U S I O N

Yoga is a bit of a hoarder. It has a lot of facets. You start with postures and suddenly find pranayama. You start with mantra and suddenly find yantra and suddenly you think “I am going to print some t-shirts”. Modern yoga is definitely NOT minimalist. Yoga is full to bursting with ideas, scriptures, imagery, history and options to personalise your practice. It is far too easy to be drawn into ever wider and more disperse circles of yoga.

For example, you begin by studying a 200-hr Sivananda YTT, and after a few months’ teaching, you understand that you need more depth. So you go on a 500-hr Yoga Therapy YTT. This helps, but by going to a different lineage, you find that the same posture is known by different names, depending on whom you study with. You start to investigate and find out that Kundalini yoga doesn’t even use Sanskrit, it uses Gurmukhi. You listen to the Kundalini bhajans and discover that you like chanting. Suddenly you have a white turban and a spiritual name. You get into White Tantra but find the scene a bit way-out. You pull away and suddenly you’re doing Beer Yoga…

Sounds funny, right? But it is not that far-fetched. It is modern yoga and it can pull you in all directions, if you’re not careful. Being pulled in all directions is the OPPOSITE of yoga, which, of course, means “to unite”. Yoga is about becoming united in body and mind, united in your path and your purpose and united in your heart and spirit.

Y O G A | M I N I M A L I S M

Minimalism, as applied to yoga, means sticking to one path, and using fewer and fewer props and postures. Yoga, union, is, after all, found in meditation. Meditation does not use anything at all. I have said many a time that meditation is profoundly counter-cultural as the one who meditates consumes nothing at all, hardly even air.

The more I practice and teach, the less I do. And I mean that in the gross, outerworld way. Of course, I try to stay “in yoga” all the time, even when I am out dancing or whatever. But I don’t feel the need to make challenging yoga shapes, post every day to Instagram whilst wearing cool yoga gear or even convince people of the many incredible benefits of yoga. In fact, I have become very minimalist in my approach to yoga.

My list:

  1. If someone hears the call to do yoga, they will. If not, don’t try to convince them.
  2. If a practice accelerates the breath, it may be good and fun, but it goes against yoga. They say you’re born with a certain number of breaths and using them up faster shortens your life. Move and breathe S L O W L Y.
  3. If you can stop, do. If you can just sit and breathe, do it.
  4. Focus on the exhale, not the inhale.
  5. Remember the Yamas ahimsa and santosha. Ahimsa is “no harming”. Don’t hurt yourself. Santosha is “enjoyment”. Make your practice fun and enjoyable.
  6. Gratitude. What a gift is it to practice yoga, to live in a time and a place in which yoga has travelled across the globe and embraced us all. Thank you, Purusha.

To close and honour the ending principle

Hindu philosophy, as applied to yoga, identifies Lord Shiva as the closer of things, the one who lets things end. As I finish this post, I offer my words to this principle. Ending, emptiness, the void – these are all quite frightening to the Western Mind. We see endings as finite, but if you see Life itself as a continuum, as energy gathering, unfolding and dispersing, then endings aren’t so scary. Minimalism in yoga is allowing your âsana practice to draw inwards, to become tighter and smaller and, well, more minimal. Don’t be afraid of letting a sweaty or active practice fade as you age. It may be just what you need. After all, if we don’t open space for the new, how can anything new enter our life?

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Fascia and slow yoga

On the Alteayoga facebook page, I re-posted a piece from Dr. Mercola’s web site in which fascia is thoughtfully discussed.  I suggest that you pop over and read it, then come back here. 

Summing up: 

Fascia makes up about 20% of body weight and is like a battery pack for muscles.  It also transports water in the body. It seems to be tightly related to pain, especially chronic pain.  Movement is the best method for relieving fascial pain.

I teach hatha yoga in a very specific way.  Firstly, following the Viniyoga method, there is almost always a dynamic and a static phase for each posture.  This means that you get both the flow of vinyasa-style yoga and the holds of classical yoga.  

Uttanasana 6x + 6B

You can see that the whole posterior muscle chain is activated in this sequence.  There is a clear indication of breathing.  Also, there is abdominal compression.  All this contributes to making this very simple sequence highly effective in moving muscles and, ergo, fascia.

I design my classes with anatomy in mind.  There are four kinds of yoga:  Bhakti (devotion), Raja (intellect), Karma (selfless service) and Hatha (movement).  I am very clearly a hatha yoga teacher, and use my deep understanding of kinesiology to design sequences within sequences all with a clear objective in mind.  Loosening up the deepest layers, the bits that no one can get to, the parts that hurt but you can’t put your finger on.  Yoga, specifically Viniyoga well-taught, gets to these parts.

Practise, all is coming.  The Guru is within.

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How We Breathe: Moving things around

Introduction

We usually just think of the breath as being Oxygen in and CO2 out…if we think about the breath at all.  Yoga practitioners may think about prâna.  But few of us take the time to contemplate all the other things that move around because of the breath.

Most of us know a little about the blood.  We have all had a cut at one time of another, and we have all seen a butcher’s shop in our lives.

Most of us, however, know very little about the lymph, the interstitial fluid or the cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF).

While the blood is moved around the body by the heart, the other fluids don’t have such luck. The lymph is primarily moved by muscle flexion and breathing.  The cerebro-spinal fluid is mainly moved by the breath and pressure differences due to blood flow and heartbeat. Interstitial fluid is drained by the lymphatic system which, as already mentioned, is moved by the breath.  Are you beginning to see a pattern?

Lymphatic flow and the breath

The lymphatic system is an amazing semi-closed network of vessels and nodes that runs throughout the entire body.  Its anatomy is not yet fully understood.

Lymph is a somewhat thick liquid that carries junk from the cells back to the central circulation so that your body can dispose of it.  Lymph is not made by the body in the same way that blood or bone is made.  Lymph is a by-product of normal metabolism.  There are times when you make more lymph – ie:  a healing wound that is inflamed will produce more waste, which then becomes lymph.  There is a baseline lymph level called the lymph obligatory load.  When you have more lymph being produced, the lymph obligatory load increases.  Are you with me so far?

Lymph is created when the junk and water that is hanging around the cells in the interstitium gets swept up into the lymph pre-collector channels.  Once there, it is called lymph although, really, it hasn’t changed. It’s just that, now, it’s in the lymphatic system and gets called lymph. For the sake of simplicity, we shall lump lymph and interstitial fluid together.  So far, so good.

The lymph vessels get bigger and bigger as they get closer to the centre of the body.  At some stage, they become able to make little pulsations which push the lymph onwards. Backflow is impeded by valves that are similar to the valves in the veins.  These are called “bicuspid valves” and are one-way.  Side note:  varicose veins are caused, often, by malfunction of the biscuspid valves.

Still, the best way to pump lymph from out to in (distal to medial) is by moving muscles and by breathing.  The movement of the diaphragm down and up creates a relative vacuum with each breath.  This pressure difference acts like a piston-like pump, and sucks the lymph into the central lymph ducts.  To return to general circulation, the lymph accumulates in the “Cisterna Chyli” before moving into the thoracic duct. The Thoracic duct is the biggest lymph vessel in the body.  It crosses the diaphragm at the lowest and back-most of the holes in the diaphragm. It empties the lymph into the subclavian vein, just below the collarbone.  Once there, the liquid is no longer lymph.  It is now part of the blood.

So…lymph is created in the cells by normal metabolism.  It needs to get “home”.  It moves because of the breath.  If we breathe badly, lymph flow is slow and we may develop edema, which is swollen tissue, full of water.  So, breathe well and love your lymph.  On we go…

CSF Flow and the breath

“Breathing acts as a pump to propel CSF up the spine and around the brain.”

“With each breath the diaphragm descends and the rib cage expands, leading to a drop in pressure in the chest cavity. This drop in pressure draws blood from the brain in veins that empty into the heart. The skull is a rigid and confined space. As blood returns to the heart, CSF is drawn up the spinal column to replace the lost volume.”

source:  (https://goiheart.com/blog/brain-breathing-to-improve-internal-health)

This is very similar to the way the breath affects the lymph. Now, take a moment to contemplate this:  the Central Nervous System (CNS) is the brain and spinal column, put as simply as possible.  Most of you have heard about discs (ie:  “slipped disc” or “herniated disc”) and the meninges (ie:  “meningitis).  Well, the discs are like hard little sponges between the spine bones and the meninges are like cling-film coatings around the brain and spinal column. The meninges carry the Cerebro-spinal fluid (CSF).

Discs don’t have blood supply.  (“During development and at birth, vertebral discs have some vascular supply to the cartilage endplates and the anulus fibrosus. These quickly deteriorate leaving almost no direct blood supply in healthy adults.“)  It seems that there is some blood supply to the edges of the discs via capillaries, the smallest of the blood vessels, and that nutrients are diffused into the centre of the discs, but very slowly.  So, to nourish the intervertebral discs is quite a challenge.

Cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) is produced in the choroid plexus of the brain and then moves along slowly with each hearbeat, circulating through the ventricles of the brain and then throughout the subarachnoid space of the spinal cord and brain. Bathing and nourishing the nervous system, CSF also cushions the brain and spinal cord.

source:  https://www.conquerchiari.org/articles/special-topics/daily-living/nuts-and-bolts-of-spinal-anatomy.html

They are, instead, nourished by the CSF in the meninges.  We write “meninges” with an “s” because it’s plural:  there are three.  One is just around the brain, but two of them go all the way down the spine to the lower back.  And yes, they nourish and protect the bones, discs and nerves of the spinal column because they transport CSF.  So, it’s a nice thing to have that CSF moving, isn’t it?

If you are well hydrated, you should be able to influence the movement of CSF via breathing and movement.  Logically, when one is lying down, the CSF pressure is about the same all the way along the spinal column.  This is also the case for lymphatic flow:  it is greatly improved by simply lying down.  I am often asked to contrast yoga with Tai Chi or Qi Gong.  While no expert on either practice, and with a healthy respect for both, I always give the same answer:  I like yoga because of the floor work, specifically that part where you lie down and breathe deeply.

Viniyoga, the breath, and moving fluids

Yoga is a practice that is based upon linking the breath with movement.  In Viniyoga, we usually open the body on the Inhale and close on the Exhale.  We use some breath retentions (krama) for added effect.  We teach breathing in postures and in isolation (pranayama).  In addition to promoting flexibility in joints and muscles, yoga lengthens and deepens the breath.  Over time, the resting breathing pattern of the practitioner changes permanently.  Because Viniyoga focuses so much on the breath, it is a deeply healing form of hatha yoga.  It is also accessible to all.  A person may not be able to dominate a complex flow sequence, but they can probably work comfortably with Viniyoga’s more gentle but just as effective sequences.

Conclusion

Breathing is more than just gas exchange.  Breathing is a motor, a pump, and it moves fluids around the body.  Specifically, lymphatic fluid, interstitial fluid and cerebro-spinal fluid are moved by the pressure gradients created by deep diaphragmatic breathing.  Yoga is a practice that teaches people how to breathe, and through the correct use of postures and sequences, we can positively influence the practitioner’s health.

Further Reading:

“Why Yoga Works”  http://www.healtouch.com/csft/yoga.html

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Spring Fair: May 5, 2018 – Save the Date!

The Alfaz Spiritual Foundation is hosting it’s Spring Fair this coming Saturday and you’re all invited!

My dear friends Tania Plahay and James Heather very kindly asked me if I wanted to share their table and I accepted.  Later, it transpired that some help was needed on the sound technician front, and I was only to happy to step in.  I do love some well-balanced sound, and happen to own two PA’s.  So, I will be around all day to meet you, talk about yoga and optimism and all things beautiful.

At 14:30, I will sing you some lovely and soothing mantras, accompanied by my faithful red guitar.  

I sure hope to see you there!

 

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How We Breathe: Mouthbreathing

Introduction

Mouth breathing is an all too common habit, and one that can be broken through yogic breathing techniques called pranayama.  In today’s post, I am going to talk about how mouth breathing can become habitual, the problems brought on my this bad habit and some ideas on how to correct mouth breathing.

The mouth-breathing habit

Mouth breathing is always an acquired habit as newborns are anatomically unable to breathe through their mouths.  This is why many a parent of a newborn with a stuffy noses sweats in fear as the baby struggles to breathe.
As the muscles of the neck and throat develop, though, the baby becomes able to breathe through the mouth.  If the child suffers from repeated bouts of  sinusitis, catarrh or rhinitis, mouth breathing may becoming habitual.  The child may become so accustomed to mouth breathing the shape of the mouth and teeth is permanently altered.  
If a person gets through childhood without developing a mouth breathing habit, they may still fall prey in adulthood.  Many high-intensity sports, like aerobics, running, spinning, tennis etc. can exert the cardiovascular system and make some mouth-breathing necessary.  However, external stressors like a very competitive attitude, pushing far past the pain barrier or a lack of awareness while exercising (the body is moving, but the brain is chewing over past or future events) can transform an otherwise healthy activity into a less healthy one.

So, why is mouth-breathing so bad?

The lungs work best with clean, moist, warm air.  They are made of an extremely fine tissue and produce mucus to protect themselves.  In fact, the whole respiratory system has a mucus lining.  What do the lungs, bronchii and throat need protecting from?  Bacteria.  Dust and particulate matter.  Dry air.  Aerosols.   Smoke.  Anything that can get into the breathing apparatus should be stopped before it gets to the lungs.
When we breathe through the nose, the cavernous area behind the visible nose, called the nasal turbinate, warms, moistens and cleans the air before it enters into the lungs.  When we breathe through the mouth, this happens to a far lesser extent, stressing the lungs.
Then, there is the adenoid tonsil.  This is a lump of lymphatic tissue that is a first defence against invaders.  If you breathe through the nose, the air passes over the adenoid tonsil.  If  any invaders are detected, the early-warning team of the immune system, the helper T-cells, kicks into action.  Keep in mind a cute and simple fact about immunity:  an early response keeps infection contained because the invader has less time to reproduce, so the extent of infection is lower.  That’s why you need a strong, quick immune response.  Bacteria and viruses reproduce very, very quickly.  You don’t want to give them even a few hours in the body without immune response!

Helper T cells are arguably the most important cells in adaptive immunity, as they are required for almost all adaptive immune responses. They not only help activate B cells to secrete antibodies and macrophages to destroy ingested microbes, but they also help activate cytotoxic T cells to kill infected target cells. As dramatically demonstrated in AIDS patients, without helper T cells we cannot defend ourselves even against many microbes that are normally harmless. (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK26827/)

The nasal turbinate also slows down the entry of air into the respiratory system because the air has to circulate a little bit in there. In slowing down the passage of air, the turbinate performs another very important function:  it warms and moistens the air.  How does this happen:  The air comes into contact with the mucus membrane of the turbinate and the blood in the capillaries which is at body temperature, transfers some heat to the air.  The mucus transfers a little bit of water, and ta-dah! cold and dry air becomes warm and moist air, just right for your lovely alveoli.
So, to resume:  the lungs want warm, moist, clean air.  The nose is the structure that can deliver air in the right conditions to the lungs.  Anything else is second-rate.

How to correct mouth-breathing.

As with anything, becoming aware is the first step. Watch yourself and see when and if you breathe through the mouth.  What are you doing when it happens? Do you breathe through the mouth at night?  Does that Netflix series you like so much keep you on the edge of your seat and alter your breath?  Just keep an eye.
When you figure out the triggers, you can put the brakes on when you need to.
If you find it generally hard to breathe through the nose and are prone to a stuffy nose, maybe you can use some neti nasal irrigation, or saline cleansing.
If physical exertion makes you mouth breathe, or pant, maybe you need to tone down the pace so that you can breathe steadily and correctly?  I know that is hard in a group class, or when we want to reach goals.  But doesn’t it make sense to not harm yourself while exercising?
Finally, if it is emotional stuff that makes your mouth breathe, try to keep your cool. Most of us seek out stimulating stuff like video games, television series and movies.  When the adrenaline gets moving, the heart rate increases and we are more likely to breathe through the mouth.  This is a totally unintentional and avoidable side-effect of a very normal activity.  Becoming aware of this can help you stop it happening.

Mouth breathing and sex.

There is one area where mouth breathing seems almost unavoidable:  lovemaking. If you are lucky enough to have a beloved to cuddle and canoodle with, right now, I’d say go for it, mouth breathing be damned! ha!  I mean, if your lover makes you pant, it is probably a good thing, right? hah!  Still, correct breathing will make it even better:   if you want to learn about tantra, or multiple orgasms for men, you will have to work on your breathing technique.    Having said all that, the good folks over at Conscious Breathing have published a very complete article about the links between good, nasal breathing and sexuality.

Conclusion

Since this is a yoga blog, I will resume by saying that the practice of hatha yoga, and pranayama will help you to breathe nasally and makes all the above easier, more pleasant and more natural.
So, come on down to class, get on your mat, breathe deeply, feel peace and joy within, and shine your little light, dear people.  The guru is within you.
Love,
Rachel
 
 

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Yoga practice – "Towards Inversion"

I am feeling generous tonight, and shall give away a lovely yoga practice that I designed last year and have taught a number of times to my dear students.
Notice that “B” or “R” means breath or respiración.
When it says “6x”, it means do the vinyasa six times.
When it says “6B”, it means hold the pose for six breaths.
Respect any contraindications and check with your primary care provider should you have any doubts about the suitably of this practice for you, at this given time.

viniyoga hatha yoga sequence
Viniyoga practice “towards inversion”

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Yoga is meant to calm me…so why do I feel so nervous?

This is a brilliant question that I received this week from a newcomer to class.  This particular lady was recommended yoga by her doctor, so comes as a special case.  Ideally, it must be said, such a person would have private tuition.  But, the mere fact that she has managed to make contact and come to class is practically a miracle.
Before the second class, she asked me this

During class last week, I felt very good.  But afterwards, I went home and felt more nervous than ever.  Isn’t yoga meant to calm me down?

Thus I replied:  Most anxiety arises from repression of emotions.  Anxiety and depression are often mixed, and sometimes confused.  But they are vastly different.  While depression has to do with a lowered level of mental activity, anxiety is a heightened state.  In yoga terms, anxiety is rajas and depression is tamas.  
Anxiety seems to arise when the brain is over-active.  This can be an excess of information, or an excess of emotion.  Most people with anxiety develop coping mechanisms.  The best way to plunge on through life when your brain is screaming red murder is to pretend it isn’t happening.  Here is the delightful Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s explaining it much more clearly than I ever could:

So, this lady suffers from chronic anxiety.  ie:  running to Tiffany’s every time she gets the mean reds.  And Tiffany’s can be a place in your mind, it can be a bottle, it can be distraction, an addiction, whatever.  You’re afraid and you don’t even know what you’re afraid of, the best response is to run, right?
Well, yes, until it isn’t the best response.  Because, just like Holly Golightly, if we could find a real live place that makes us feel like Tiffany’s, then we would buy some furniture and give the cat a name.
You see, dear readers, dear students, dear seekers, yoga brings you home to that real live place. When suddenly you have contact with the Still Point inside of you, simply through breathing, movement and the right teacher, you realise that all your running was in vain.  And you relax a little bit.  But… the minute you relax a little bit and then go back to breathing fast and shallow, fighting with the traffic, being surrounded by people who are NOT on the Path and almost seem to wish to shove YOU off the Path, you have to start running away again.  And you feel even more nervous than before.  
You can think of it as a study of contrasts.  If you are always in the mean reds, then a little deeper tone of red is hardly noticeable.  But if you are suddenly “in the pinks” and you go back to the reds…ouch.
Why does yoga make me feel good in class but nervous afterwards? Because yoga holds a mirror up to your inner state and makes you look at the things you don’t want to see and have probably spent a lifetime avoiding.  For that reason it is very, very, very important to have a trusting relationship with a qualified teacher.
Upon receiving that information from my student, a person I know hardly at all, I modified the pranayama at the end of the class and gave a technique specifically indicated for her, but that would cause no harm to any other members of the class.  And then, the next morning, I texted her, to make sure she was okay.  And she was.  And what’s more, she felt good.
So, people, there are Youtube videos a-plenty, gymnasium yoga fit classes galore, all sorts of bells and whistles.  But yoga is a practice that transcends all of this stuff and has tools to help everybody and the teacher is the one who will show you the path.  Get on your mats, comes to class, breathe deeply, be joyful.  The Spirit is within you, let it move you.
Love,
Rachel